Designed in collaboration with Paul Cheeks Architects, Cooper Carry introduces the 55,000-square-foot Academic Sciences Building, a signature facility that establishes a new identity for Atlanta Metropolitan College.
The space is filled with a variety of teaching laboratories, including prep rooms, storage and instrumentation labs for biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology, organic and inorganic chemistry, physical sciences and pre-engineering/general sciences. Four undergraduate research laboratories and an autoclave room round out the laboratory component.
The building’s technical features mirror the high-level research that takes place inside. Night setback controls automatically reduce the amount of outside and exhaust air delivered to each unoccupied laboratory space to reduce energy costs. Central natural gas, compressed air and vacuum systems support the program requirements of the various laboratory spaces. A digital building automation system controls the HVAC systems and provides continual diagnostic feedback to the campus facilities office.
Student community spaces and study rooms are dispersed throughout the building with a larger open student study area as part of the main entrance lobby. Its classrooms range in size from 36-120 seats, in addition to a 60-seat Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) classroom. The TEAL room can be divided into two rooms with a movable partition. All classrooms are equipped with high-end audio/visual equipment to allow for a state-of-the-art learning experience.
